Children’s cookery author, Annabel Karmel, shares her favourite Halloween recipes for a spook-tacular spread.
Make this year a Halloween to remember with a spook-tacular party food spread from No.1 children’s cookery author Annabel Karmel. From spellbinding snacks, to freakishly tasty mains and devilish desserts, get your trick or treaters in the kitchen to stir up some (tasty) Halloween recipes.
Warm Pumpkin Soup
Warm up tums with a bubbling bowl of pumpkin soup served with creepy cheese snake straws.
Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Makes: 4 portions (and about 15 cheese straw snakes)
Suitable for freezing
Soup
1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
600g pumpkin, peeled and diced
¼ red chilli, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 ½ pints chicken or vegetable stock
50ml double cream (optional)
Cheese straw snakes
320g packet puff pastry
25g Parmesan cheese, grated
25g Gruyere cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten
Poppy seeds
Black olives, for decoration
Red pepper, for decoration
- To make the soup. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion and fry for a few minutes.
- Add the carrots, pumpkin, chilli and garlic and fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add the stock, cover and bring up to the boil. Season and simmer for 15 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.
- Meanwhile, to make the cheese straw snakes. Preheat the oven to 200C Fan / 220C / 425F / Gas Mark 7. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Roll out the pastry thinly to a large rectangle. Sprinkle half of the pastry with the cheese. Fold over the other half. Re-roll to make a rectangle that measures about 35 x 25 cm.
- Slice 1 ½ cm strips from the longer side to make long strips.
- Loosely wrap each strip around a wooden spoon to make a spiral shape for the snake’s body. Shape one end into the head.
- Arrange on the baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Chop the olives into small pieces and add to the snake faces to make the eyes. Make tongues out of red pepper.
- Blend the soup until smooth.
- Drizzle with cream before serving (if using) and serve alongside the cheese straw snakes.
12 Ghoulish Cupcakes
Boo! This Halloween recipe for ghost cupcakes are ghoulishly good, and your little monsters will love to get involved in the mixing, whisking and piping.
Prep: 30 – 40 minutes
Cook: 1 hour
Makes: 12 ghost cupcakes
Cupcakes
115g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
175 g self raising flour
15g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
75g plain chocolate, melted
2 tbsp milk
Pinch of salt
Meringue Ghosts
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
Edible eyes
White icing pen
- Preheat the oven to 160C Fan / 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
- To make the chocolate cupcakes. Whisk the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and whisk again. Add the remaining cake ingredients and whisk until light and fluffy.
- Spoon into the cases and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until well risen and just firm in the middle. Leave to cool.
- Meanwhile, to make the meringue ghosts. Preheat the oven to 100C Fan / 120C / 250F / Gas Mark ½.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Whisk the egg whites until stiff using an electric hand whisk. Add the sugar a little at a time until you have a shiny stiff meringue.
- Spoon into a piping bag. Pipe 12 ghost shapes onto the paper.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour until firm. Leave to cool.
- Put the meringue ghosts on top of each cupcake. Stick eyes onto the ghosts using the white icing pen.
Fiendish Fruit Platter
Kids will love creating their very own banana ghosts and kiwi Frankenstein characters, and it’s a great way to get them eating their 5 a day.
Prep: 20 minutes
Makes: 1 fruit platter
5 clementines or tangerines, peeled and left whole
2 small bananas, peeled
5 kiwis
200g blueberries
100g black berries
½ cantaloupe melon
Edible eyes
Black icing pen
- Put the peeled whole clementines onto a platter.
- Peel one kiwi and slice a strip of the green flesh to make 5 stalks for the clementine or tangerine pumpkins. Insert into the tops.
- Carefully remove half of the peel from the remaining kiwis to make the heads of the little Frankensteins. Add edible eyes and draw a little mouth on each one using a black icing pen.
- Slice the bananas in half widthways. Draw a mouth and eyes to make a ghost’s face.
- Put the blueberries and blackberries onto the platter.
- Add the eyes to the blueberries using the white icing pen.
- Peel the melon and cut out 4 gravestone shapes out of the flesh. Write RIP with a black writing icing pen.
- Arrange the fiendish fruits on the platter!
Mini Monster Cakes
This Halloween recipe is perfect for a children’s Halloween party – it uses shop bought Madeira cake to keep things scarily simple!
Prep: 20 – 30 minutes
Makes: 8 monster cakes
Cake squares
1 madeira cake
100g butter, softened
175g icing sugar
1 – 2 tbsp milk
Decoration
150g desiccated coconut
Lime green and orange food colouring
Edible eyes
White ready to roll fondant icing
Black ready to roll fondant icing
- Slice the madeira cake into 8 rectangles.
- To make the buttercream. Whisk the butter, icing sugar and milk together until light and fluffy.
- Spread the buttercream over the pieces of cake.
- Divide the desiccated coconut into 2 bowls. Add green food colouring to one bowl and orange to the other, well until well coloured.
- Coat the cakes in the coloured coconut mix.
- Add edible eyes to the faces. Make large eyes out of the black and white fondant. Add to the monster faces.
Fuel your trick or treaters with Annabel’s range of ready-to-go meals for toddlers and children. Inspired by Annabel’s famous cookbook recipes, they are low in salt, super balanced, and a tasty way towards their 5 a day. Find the range in the chilled aisle at Sainsbury’s, Tesco Waitrose and Ocado. Find out more at www.annabelkarmel.com.
